


The story of May

by MsPaulik



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-09
Updated: 2019-02-09
Packaged: 2019-10-25 05:41:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17719169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MsPaulik/pseuds/MsPaulik
Summary: Half of the universe is wiped out. People are still mourning. May Parker's world turns to dust. How does she get through it?





	The story of May

May didn’t really know what she expected. It felt like she should have known something like that was about to come but she refused to believe in it. Until it was too late.

Ever since she had seen Peter in his suit, she couldn’t help but live in constant fear. She’d already been worried, sure, but knowing the truth only made matters worse. He was her nephew. Her family. Her child. She loved him more than anything. And now he was gone.

The first time her heart broke a little was when Richard and Mary died. For Peter it meant a whole world collapsing. For her, putting on a brave face and doing her best. She was his family now. She wasn’t going to let him down.

And then she lost Ben… Honestly, it was like a punch in the guts. A massive earthquake. The entire universe crumbling down. Again, she had to survive.

The next time was learning that her boy was Spider-Man. All the mishaps and wrong-goings happening in Peter’s school years, which hurt as fuck, were she to be honest, were mere trifles. Little nothings compared to that. This time it was her world that collapsed a little one more time. But again, she was strong. And angry as hell. And somewhat disappointed, mostly in herself, that Peter didn’t trust her enough to tell her. Or so she had thought before they talked. And oh boy, did they talk. The overwhelming peace and quiet she felt after that was enough to make her feel brave. She wasn’t going to let Peter down. She was sure of that.

But then… The spaceship. The aliens once again. Peter out of touch. Spider-Man all over the news along with the Avengers and some new other guys. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t think. She couldn’t cry. She could only watch. And so she did. The fights. The ship flying into space. Her little boy gone.

She waited.

She hoped.

She cried for hours after the snap.

He wasn’t coming back. She didn’t protect him. She couldn’t. She let Peter down.

But what if he was? Tony Stark was there too. He wouldn’t let anything happen to Peter, right? From what she had seen, and Peter had told her, Tony Stark cared about the kid too. So, the hope was back.

May wasn’t the only one who lost someone in the snap. She couldn’t let anyone know Spider-Man’s identity, so she had to pretend that Peter was gone. Not that there was a lot to pretend. He _was_ gone after all. Just not forever. At least she believed so. But there were others who _knew_ for sure. And May decided to help them. Be strong, be brave. Do the right thing. _Do not let Peter down._

There was May’s lovely young neighbour who just had had a baby. She was walking through a park when her daughter turned to dust in the stroller. And that charming granny down the street who always sat the window. She saw her grandson vanish on his way to her door. Oh, and that funny boy who worked in the grocery store around the corner. One moment he was hugging his brother, the next it was thin air in his arms.

Everybody lost someone. She needed to help them.

It started with the neighbour. She came to May’s apartment and burst into tears. They cried together.

They went to visit the old lady. She baked cookies and told them that the good boy Iron Man would fix this. He always did. May was stunned. She didn’t think of this. The Avengers. The team. They were broken too. Poor Ms Potts. She must have been devastated. She lost Tony again. That second May got angry. She knew whose fault it was. She was going to do something about it.

The community work was arranged. It wasn’t easy. Half of the population had been erased after all. Many more casualties were reported in all sorts of accidents after pilots, drivers, workers were turned to dust. The society spiralled into chaos. But somehow, they managed to organise support groups and group therapy meetings. Psychologists and therapists were more than happy to help. The world was different now. The rules had changed. People couldn’t care less about money and profit given the circumstances. They bonded. They slowly scrambled back to stability. After grief came anger. They needed someone to put the blame on. May made sure that they found the right person. He had to be punished.

When she first decided to visit the upstate facilities, she wasn’t sure what she was supposed to say and do. She needed to go there but when she finally rang the bell, she had no idea what to expect. She was a little surprised when a flood of relief came upon her after Ms Potts herself had opened the door. Suddenly, everything was clear. They weren’t Ms Potts and Ms Parker anymore. They were Pepper and May. Two broken hearts among lost souls.

After that, May became a regular guest there. However, no one on the team knew what her true reason to spend so much time upstate was. They thought that she needed someone to talk honestly to. They didn’t know she had a plan.

When she was back in the city, she continued her work in the neighbourhood. She also helped to establish some other centres in other parts of New York as well. And she worked with everyone on her plan. It was a bit difficult to explain how she had the access to the Avengers, but she just kept telling the story about bonding with Pepper when Peter did the ‘internship’ at Stark’s Industries. They didn’t question it. Not out loud at least.

Days, weeks, eventually months passed by. Whatever life was left on Earth, it kept going on. Nobody forgot and nobody forgave but they needed to play the normality game in order not to go mad. May started spending way more time in the city again. The spark of hope she had felt before began dying out. Every day a little more. No sign of Tony Stark. No sign of her boy. The Avengers lost and unable to come up with any kind of a realistic plan. It pained May deeply. She didn’t want to give up. Yet, with every new day of her life she felt that she would have to.

She would have to let Peter down.

Lucy, the neighbour who lost her baby girl, moved out eventually. She couldn’t stand the presence of her daughter in the old apartment. And the thought that something might happen in New York again was too much for her. She told May that she had a cousin in Chicago who survived. So, she decided to go.

Cory, the boy from the grocery store, still worked there. He just wasn’t as cheerful and witty as he used to be. But, frankly, who was? He didn’t come to any of the meetings but enjoyed chatting with May every now and then. He told her he wasn’t angry. He was disappointed. That nobody did anything when there still had been a chance. He thought it was too late. He decided to move on.

Mrs Henderson, somehow, never stopped believing that everything would be fine. May couldn’t help but wonder how that old lady was able to remain so hopeful after all that time. She was a thin ray of joy in May’s life. And a great source of comfort and peace in the not-so-quiet life of community work. Mrs Henderson was also the only reason why May herself didn’t give up her own hope completely. She had to believe. As Mrs Henderson said, she had to have faith in that Iron Man boy. He would be back. He would save them all.

May wanted to believe in that too. She still had a battle to fight. A war to go to. She and hundreds, thousands even, of others too. She didn’t want to give up. There was a difference between _having to_ and _wanting to_. As long as she didn’t want to, she wouldn’t.

Her hope paid off.

It started out as a rumour. Some gossip. Whispers in the streets. She went upstate as soon as she heard it too. She needed to know. She didn’t want to abandon her hope.

It was true! Tony Stark had made contact with the facilities. Or rather F.R.I.D.A.Y. had received signal from Iron Man’s helmet. Two words. _I’m coming._

The initial excitement was soon replaced with nervous anticipation. When did he send the message? Was it a continuous signal or a single transmission? How long did it take to get to Earth? Where was the ship? _Who_ was there? _Was_ there anyone at all?

The moment the information was released to the public, everyone was involved in the search. NASA offered its resources. Military scanned the sky and international transmissions. But that one message. Those two words. It was all they had.

Once again, the hopes started fading away. There might have been an accident. The ship might have crashed into an asteroid. It might have been a long lost, miraculously sent through space signal. So many possibilities. So little answers.

They waited. Again.

They hoped.

They cried.

It wasn’t until a few weeks later when an amateur astronomer spotted a new object on the night sky, somewhere over Australia. Space agencies all around the world began their search. Soon they confirmed that it was not an astronomical object or a satellite. It was a spaceship. The hope was back.

However, the fear was there too. What if it was another alien invasion? It was obvious that humans were not alone in the universe. Military forces all around the world were ready to strike. The Avengers regrouped and prepared themselves for the worst. People exchanged every piece of information they could find. Just in case. Because they didn’t forget. They _couldn’t_ forget.

The day had come. The ship crashed in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Armies were ready. They sent strike teams to explore the untouched part of the ship. Others searched the waters. No one was outside. Whoever came in must still have been in the spacecraft.

Minutes felt like hours. The whole world was watching. Everyone held their breaths when there was finally some commotion spotted near the entrance to the ship. An enemy or a miracle?

The world cried out.

_He_ was back.

Due to severe malnutrition and dehydration, Tony Stark had to spend the first several days at a hospital. He was unconscious, so it was impossible to learn what happened to him anyway. But he was back. _Alive._

Pepper Potts didn’t leave his side the entire time. The Avengers refused to go back upstate until Tony woke up. People wanted to know everything that was happening. They had lost so much already. One more dead superhero would have been too much.

May waited. By now, she had become an expert in it.

The return to the facilities was quiet. Very few people knew about it. Tony wasn’t ready to face the public. He needed time and, oh the irony, space. His PTSD came back with triple force. He didn’t talk to anyone and only let Pepper anywhere near him. He was broken. Crushed. Turned to dust yet alive.

May recognized the look on his face. She had seen it so many times before. In every person who had watched someone they loved vanish into thin air. She knew what had happened immediately after she’d heard that he was the only passenger. Her world collapsed again.

She was angry. She realised she hadn’t come to terms with all that had happened. Neither had most of the people she met after the snap. They needed to act. They craved justice.

She drove upstate after Pepper had called and invited her. She deserved to be there too. Tony was ready to talk.

Looking into his face wasn’t easy. May didn’t expect it to be, yet she was surprised how much it hurt. Peter should have been there too.

‘I’m…’ Tony began.

‘Is he _dead_ dead? Or turned to dust?’ May interrupted him.

‘What?’

‘Did he die in a battle? Being, I don’t know, stabbed? Shot? Burnt?’ She was a little bit shocked that her voice didn’t tremble. That she didn’t stutter.

‘No, he…’ Tony was shocked too. He didn’t expect that.

‘Good.’ She interrupted him again. ‘It means he’d turned to dust. You can bring him back.’

‘Wait, what?!’ Tony was truly shaken. ‘You’re not angry at me?’

‘Why should I be?’

‘I took him there. He died in front of me. I am…’

‘Oh, shush!’ May got frustrated. ‘I heard the recordings from your suits. F.R.I.D.A.Y. had played them for us all. You wanted him to get his ass back home. Besides, he didn’t die. He’s turned to dust.’

‘I don’t understand.’ Tony said, confused. ‘I made him an Avenger. I made him fight. It’s all my fault!’

‘Tony…’ Pepper began talking but found herself at a loss of words. Instead she just wrapped her arm around his waist and looked at May.

‘Nope.’ May sighed. ‘Look, I know you feel bad. I get it. But he had started with his superhero shenanigans before he even met you. It’s not your fault. Geez, the entire thing is not your fault!’ She exclaimed loudly.

‘I should have done more… I should have seen it coming.’ Tony sounded truly broken.

‘But the thing is you _had_! It’s not your fault some people didn’t understand that.’ May shot a dirty look at captain Rogers.

‘Half universe is gone, for fuck’s sake!’ Tony shouted,

‘Bold of you to assume we haven’t noticed.’ May snapped at him. ‘Look, all of us have lost someone, ok? Still not your fault. You just need to work with these idiots to bring people back.’ She waved at the Avengers.

‘Bring back? You still have faith in me?’ Tony couldn’t believe in what he’d just heard.

‘Yup! Peter had. I trust him.’ May smiled brightly. ‘Oh, where is he?’

‘He? Peter?’ Tony was confused.

‘No. _He._ That purple bastard. People of Earth have a business with him.’

‘Thanos is… Wait, a business? What the hell are you talking about?!’

‘Well, as I’ve told you, not your fault. _His_ fault. We crave blood. Purple to be precise.’ May said in a very serious voice.

‘You what now?’ It was Steve’s turn to be dumbfounded.

‘Oh, we are prepared. You don’t get to destroy our world just like that. Next time we’ll be ready.’ She said calmly, leaving everyone speechless. ‘He’ll get his hell on Earth.’

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! I hope you liked it. It is my first story after a very long break from writing. The plot had been stuck in my head since the Infinity War. Not beta-read. English's not my first language. Sorry for all the mistakes.


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